When Blair Associate Professor of Percussion Ji Hye Jung asked Clark Hubbard to include rocks as instruments in a commissioned work for the Vanderbilt Percussion Group, he thought, Why not?

"I think she said it kind of as a joke, but I took that as a challenge to sneak rocks into the piece," Hubbard says.

The result is Stardust, a quartet for two vibraphones and two multi-percussionists playing kick and snare drums, semi-resonant metal pipe and rocks. The piece was premiered by the Vanderbilt Percussion Group in spring 2023 and in the repertoire for their Korean tour later that fall. In May 2024, Kenny Swartout and Josh Weinfeld, both Class of 2022 Blair percussion alumni, produced a video of the work through their Nashville company Continuous Motion Productions. Since then, percussion groups in more than 30 states and 20 countries have viewed or played Stardust.

"That piece has taken off more than any of my others, and people are still asking for copies of it. It's also been very cool to see the wide range of interpretations."

WATCH the Vanderbilt Percussion Group play Clark Hubbard's Stardust

Hubbard enjoys a challenge, whether it's figuring out how to incorporate the sound of hitting rocks into a composition, writing and playing a piece that uses found household items, like aluminum soda cans, as instrumentation, or creating a work for a handbell choir in his hometown of Lancaster, Ohio. This multitalented composer and musician is open to all kinds of ideas and influences. "I like to think I'm in that cross section of traditional classical music and pop radio," he says.

Whatever the song is, if you want to transform it and make it your own, that's OK with me.

Happy playing any kind of drum, Hubbard began composing music in junior high, but he says he became serious about it as a sophomore at Blair with the encouragement of Jung. While he was in graduate school at the University of Michigan, Jung asked him to compose a marimba piece for her. At Michigan, while earning a master's in percussion performance and chamber music performance, Hubbard also had the opportunity to work with the Michigan Marching Band. In 2021 he returned to Vanderbilt as assistant director of marching and athletic bands-bands he once played with-where he now creates arrangements and composes while teaching and directing the Spirit of Gold bands and drumline and managing their website and social media.

"As a percussionist, I was always at the back of the ensemble, but now I'm up front and get to hear the full picture," Hubbard says. "Now I take a more holistic approach to things."

He also is open to other musicians' interpretations of his compositions.

"Whatever the song is, if you want to transform it and make it your own, that's OK with me," Hubbard says. "The notes on the page are just a suggestion. If I want to hear it a certain way, I'll record my own version."

-Bonnie Arant Ertelt

Hear Hubbard's music at clarkhubbardmusic.com.